39. Remote Desktop and Remote Access

If your computer runs Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition, your computer has a spiffy feature called Remote Desktop that lets it accept connections from another computer. When you travel, you can see your home computer’s screen, move its mouse and type on its keyboard, open files, and even print, just as if you were really sitting in front of it. The neat part is that you can do this from any computer that runs just about any version of Windows or Mac OS X, and even iOS and Android devices.

If you have the Home version of Windows 10, the hosting side of Remote Desktop isn’t included, but you can still get remote access to your computer using a third-party program such as TeamViewer, which we discuss at the end of the chapter.

Whatever program you use, Figure 39.1 shows how it works. Your keystrokes, mouse, and touch movements get sent from one computer to your own computer, wherever it is. The remote computer’s display, sound, and print output travel back to you and appear on the local computer.

This is just what you need when you’re out of town and need to read a file you left on the computer back home, or if you want to read your office email from home.

As we mentioned, the client part of Remote Desktop, which lets you connect to other computers, runs on any version of Windows, OS X, and iOS, and there are versions for Android. The Remote Desktop service, which lets a computer be controlled by a remote connection, is available only on some Windows versions:

Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education

Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro and Enterprise

Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise

Windows Vista Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise

Windows XP Professional

All versions of Windows Server since Windows 2000 Server

Even if your computer does have Remote Desktop capability, you might want to check out the third-party tools. We recommend reading about both options before you decide to use one or the other. Here are the trade-offs:

Remote Desktop can be considerably harder to set up than the third-party programs if you want access through the Internet.

Better support is available for the third-party client programs on Android devices than for Remote Desktop.

Remote Desktop won’t let you collaborate with or assist someone who’s sitting at the remote computer, because it blanks out your home computer’s screen while you’re connected from afar. The third-party tools that we discuss at the end of this chapter will let you work with someone who’s at the remote computer.

And Windows has a separate, built-in tool for screen-sharing. If collaboration is what you’re after, see “Remote Assistance,” p. 884.

Remote Desktop might offer better security. The third-party options that provide access over the Internet all open a data connection between your computer and the host company’s servers. They keep a “pipeline” open into your computer from their facilities at all times. You must trust that they’ll never get hacked themselves; otherwise, criminals or governmental agencies could conceivably snoop into your computer from their facilities. (On the other hand, third-party vendors will block access to someone who’s trying to guess passwords. Remote Desktop will happily let someone test passwords all day.)

Remote Desktop works well between computers on a home or office LAN, and on a LAN that isn’t connected to the Internet. Most of the third-party products require Internet access, so they won’t work on a disconnected LAN.

Remote Desktop automatically transmits sound and lets you print from the home (host) computer to your current location. Not all third-party programs do this.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you’re more concerned about convenience or privacy. Over the past few years, I’ve switched from Remote Desktop to a third-party program for remote access to my own personal computer, but I still use only Remote Desktop for business networks.

The remainder of this chapter consists of three major sections. The first part shows you how to set up your computer so that you can access it remotely. The second part shows you how to connect to another computer using the Remote Desktop Client. The third part discusses third-party alternatives.

By the way, Remote Desktop is a scaled-down version of Windows Terminal Services, a component of the Windows Server versions that lets multiple users run programs on one central server. By “scaled down,” we mean that only one person is allowed to connect to a computer running a desktop version of Windows at a time, either remotely or with the regular monitor and keyboard. So if you connect remotely, a local user is temporarily kicked out to the Welcome screen. And if a user signs in at the home computer while you’re connected remotely, you’ll be disconnected. You won’t lose your work—you can reconnect later and pick up where you left off—but the bottom line is that only one person at a time is allowed to use a given Windows 10 computer.

As mentioned previously, incoming Remote Desktop connections are available only on Windows Pro, Enterprise (corporate), and Education versions. If you don’t have one of these versions, see the last section in this chapter, which discusses third-party options.

Across a LAN (that is, between computers in your home or office), Remote Desktop works right “out of the box”; you just have to enable the feature. However, if you want to use Remote Desktop to reach your computer over the Internet, you must set up several other things in advance. The procedure might sound complex as you read it, but it really isn’t that bad. Just go through the process step by step. You can go about this in other ways, of course, but what we give you here is a procedure that’s suitable for a home or small office user with Windows 10 Pro.

Again, some web-based programs do much the same thing as Remote Desktop. Several of them are free, and most of them require very little setup work; in particular, they completely bypass the networking issues we discuss shortly. If the instructions in this section sound too difficult, or if the setup doesn’t work for you, check out the section “Third-Party Remote Control Tools” at the end of the chapter.

1. In the taskbar’s search box, type remote and wait for the search results to appear. Under Settings, select Allow Remote Access to Your Computer.

Alternatively, press Windows Logo+X, select System, and select Remote Settings. Or just type sysdm.cpl at a Command Prompt and then select the Remote tab.

2. In the bottom half of the dialog box, select Allow Remote Connections to This Computer, and uncheck Allow Connections Only from...Recommended. (The “more secure” version works only on corporate networks using IPSec security and doesn’t work for home/small office users.)

3. By default, all Administrator-level accounts will be allowed to connect to the computer. If you want to grant Remote Desktop access to any Standard users, click Select Users, Add, Advanced, Find Now, and then locate the desired name in the Search Results section. Double-click the name. To add another name, click Advanced and Find Now again.

4. Click OK to close all the dialog boxes.

If your computer is set to go to sleep when it sits unused for a while, and you want the computer to be available for incoming connections at all times, you’ll have to disable automatic sleep. To do this, go to the Start menu and type power plan. In the results, under Settings, select Edit Power Plan. Change the Put the Computer to Sleep setting to Never for both Battery and Plugged In options, and then click Save Changes.

Now, confirm that Remote Desktop connections are correctly set up to be allowed through the Windows Firewall. In the taskbar’s search box, type firewall and then select Allow an App Through Windows Firewall. Scroll down the list of Allowed Apps and Features and locate Remote Desktop. Be sure it’s checked under both Private and Public. If it isn’t, click Change Settings and then check the boxes. Click OK.

If you just want to use Remote Desktop within your home or office network, you’re finished, and can skip ahead to the “Connecting to Other Computers with Remote Desktop” section. However, if you want to reach your computer through the Internet, you have more work to do.

First, if you are setting up access to a desktop PC, you must be sure that your computer will turn itself back on if the power goes out while you’re not there. You do this from the computer’s BIOS or UEFI setup screen. To get there, click Start, Power. Hold the Shift key down while you click Restart. In the Choose an Option screen, select Troubleshoot, Advanced Options. If there is a selection titled UEFI Firmware Settings, select that and see whether there is an option for recovering from an AC power failure.

If there is no UEFI Firmware Settings tile, click the back arrow twice, and select Continue. Wait for the screen to go black, and then press the Setup hotkey. The screen should tell you what to press; it’s usually the Delete or F2 key. Then look for the Power Management settings. Find an entry titled AC Power Recovery or something similar. Some computers have an option labeled Last Setting, which turns on the computer only if it was already on when the power failed. If it’s available, you can select that. Otherwise, select the setting that turns on your computer whenever the AC power comes on. Then save the BIOS settings and restart Windows.

Besides a 24/7 computer, you need a 24/7 Internet connection. If you have cable Internet service or a type of DSL service that does not require you to enter a username or password, you already have an always-on Internet connection and can skip ahead to the next section. Otherwise, if you have Internet service that is connection-based, you need to take one of the following actions:

See whether your DSL provider can upgrade your service to provide a static IP address and always-on service. This option might be inexpensive enough to make it worthwhile.

Use a router. If you don’t have a router already, buying one is a worthwhile investment. They cost roughly $20 to $100, and can also provide wireless networking capability and Internet connection sharing for your home or office. Chapter 19, “Connecting Your Network to the Internet,” tells how to set up a router for DSL service. Be sure to enable the router’s “keepalive” feature so that your connection is kept going all the time.

If you use the Internet Connection Sharing utility that comes with Windows, you can add a third-party program to force Windows to keep the connection open all the time. The DynDNS Updater program (which we discuss later) can do this for you.

Next, you must make sure you can locate your computer from out on the Internet.

The solution to this problem is to use a dynamic domain name service (DDNS). You’ll use the service to give your computer a name, such as brian.likes-pie.com. (Seriously.) Add-on software in your computer will keep the service updated whenever your computer’s address changes.

To set up dynamic domain name service at Dyn.com using the 14-day free trial offer, follow these steps:

1. Open your preferred web browser and go to www.dyn.com/dns. At the bottom of the web page under Remote Access, click Or Start 14-day Free Trial.

2. Enter a hostname that you can easily remember, and select a domain name from the pull-down list. (I entered hostname brian and selected domain likes-pie.com. This gives my computer the Internet name brian.likes-pie.com.) If someone else has claimed the name you chose, change the name or domain and try again until you succeed. Be sure to write down the hostname and domain name that you eventually select.

(At the time we wrote this, the hostname entered here ends up not actually getting registered, but you have to go through this exercise anyway.)

Leave Wildcard unchecked and Service Type set to Host with IP Address. Click the link Your Current Location’s IP Address Is.... to record that address. Then click Add to Cart.

3. You should have DynDNSPro Trial (14 days) and a Dynamic DNS Hostname in the cart. Complete the rest of the registration process. You’ll receive an email with a confirmation code that you will have to enter to confirm your account. This will take you to a payment page, where you’ll need to supply credit card information.

(If you cancel the service before 14 days elapse, you will not be charged and you will still be allowed one free registered dynamic hostname; however, it could get deleted if its address is not updated at least once a month.)

4. After the order has been processed, at the left, click My Services, and then under that, click DynDNS Pro/Hosts. If your desired hostname is listed, you’re good to go. Otherwise, click +Add New Hostname and reenter what you entered in step 2, clicking Activate when finished.

Next, set up a DNS client program so that changes to your IP address are sent to Dyn.com. There are two ways to do this. If you have a hardware Internet router, it might be able to automatically update your IP address. You can find support information on Dyn.com to help you do this.

Alternatively, install a Dynamic DNS updating tool on the computer you’re enabling for Remote Desktop access. This is a software service that will periodically determine your network’s public IP address and will update your name-to-address mapping in Dyn.com’s server.

Here’s how to do this on the computer you’re enabling for Remote Desktop access:

1. Sign in as a computer administrator. Open your web browser and go to www.dyn.com/support. Click Update Clients. Under Windows, select the most recent Installation Guide. On the guide page, select Download the Dyn Update Client For Windows. When prompted, select Run, and then approve the User Account Control prompt.

2. Step through the installation screens, using the default settings (except uncheck Enable Dyn Internet Guide on This PC).

3. When the program starts, enter the Dyn.com account username and password that you created previously. In the list of hosts, click the check box for the hostname you created for this computer, and then click OK.

The Dyn Updater service will now keep your hostname updated with your public IP address whenever it changes. (This true Windows service runs whenever your computer is turned on, whether or not you are signed in.)

To be sure that the service is working, right-click the bottom-left corner of the screen and select Command Prompt. Type the command ping followed by the hostname and domain name you chose for your computer; for example, ping brian.likes-pie.com. Press Enter and be sure that the command finds your IP address and doesn’t print “Could not find host.”

Now your registered hostname will always point to your computer, even when your IP address changes. After a change, it might take up to an hour for the update to occur, but changes should be infrequent.

The procedure depends on whether you are using the ICS service built in to Windows or a hardware-sharing router. Use one of the procedures described in the next two sections.

First, because your router doesn’t know your computers by their names, you must set up a fixed IP address on the computer that you will be using via Remote Desktop, using these steps:

1. Press Windows Logo+X and select Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell, whichever appears in the list. Type the command ipconfig /all and press Enter. Locate the Local Area Connection part of the printout, which will look something like this (I omitted a few entries):

Click here to view code image

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : somewhere.com
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-8F-D2-CA-5F
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.102
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 200.123.45.6
                                       200.123.67.8

The important information is bold. (On your computer, the numbers will be different. Use your numbers, not these!)

If the entry DHCP Enabled says No, you don’t have to change anything here. Just note the IPv4 Address entry, skip steps 2 through 8, and configure your router.

2. Right-click the network icon at the right end of the taskbar and select Open Network and Sharing Center. Select Change Adapter Settings.

3. Right-click the icon that represents your LAN connection (most likely Ethernet or Wireless) and select Properties.

4. In the Networking tab, select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) entry and click Properties.

5. In the General tab, check Use the Following IP Address. Enter the first three parts of your original IP address exactly as you see it in your Command Prompt window, but replace the last part with 250 (for example, 192.168.0.250). The first three sets of digits might be different on your network.

6. For the subnet mask and default gateway, enter the same numbers that were displayed in the Command Prompt window.

7. Check Use the Following DNS Server Addresses. Enter the one or two DNS Server addresses that were displayed in the Command Prompt window.

8. Click OK.

(If you need to set up any other computers to have fixed IP addresses, use the same procedure but use addresses ending in .249, .248, .247, and so on, counting backward from .250.)

Now you must instruct your router to forward Remote Desktop connections to this computer. Open Internet Explorer and enter http:// followed by the Default Gateway address you noted in step 1 (for example, http://192.168.0.1). Then press Enter. Every router uses a slightly different scheme, but Figure 39.2 shows a typical router. You need to find the router’s setup screen and enable its Port Forwarding feature, which some routers call Virtual Server or Applications and Gaming.

On the router, you must enter the fixed IP address that you assigned to your computer and tell the router to forward connections on TCP port 3389 to this address. If a range of port numbers is required, or if external and internal numbers are entered separately, enter 3389 in all fields.

Now you should be able to reach your computer from anywhere on the Internet using the hostname you set up on Dyn.com.

1. Go to the computer that is sharing its connection (whether or not it’s the one you want to reach via Remote Desktop) and sign in as a computer administrator.

2. View the Properties dialog box for the local area connection that corresponds to the Internet connection itself. On a Windows 10 version, right-click the network icon in the taskbar, and select Open Network and Sharing Center. In the Tasks list, select Change Adapter Settings.

3. Locate the connection icon that goes to your Internet service. It will have the word Shared under or next to it. Right-click the icon, select Properties, and view the Sharing tab.

4. Click Settings and, under Services, check Remote Desktop. In the Service Settings dialog box, enter the name of the computer that you want to make available via Remote Desktop, and click OK. (To find the name of the computer, view its System or System Properties screen by going to the Start menu and typing system, and then select System Information or select System.)

5. When you’re finished, click OK to close all the dialog boxes.

Now you should be able to reach your computer from anywhere on the Internet using the hostname you set up on Dyn.com using the Remote Desktop Connection client program described in the next section.

On Windows 10 and Windows 8 and 8.1, you can choose from two Remote Desktop clients. There is a Modern-style version named Remote Desktop that you can download at no cost from the Store app. The traditional desktop client is always preinstalled. To use either one, in the taskbar’s search box, type remote. To use the Modern Application version, see the next section. To use the desktop version, select Remote Desktop Connection. We describe both clients in this chapter. You can also run the desktop version by typing mstsc at the Command Prompt.

On Windows 7 and Vista, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Remote Desktop Connection. This is the Desktop version.

On Windows XP, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop Connection.

The version that came with XP lacks support for multiple monitors and plug-and-play devices. You can upgrade the version on XP by downloading and installing the latest version, as described in the next paragraph.

You can download a client from www.microsoft.com/download. Search for Remote Desktop Connection and get the latest version available for your operating system. You can find versions there for Windows and Mac OS X.

If you have an iOS or Android device, such as an iPad, search your device’s app store for a Remote Desktop client published by Microsoft. Other vendors have published Remote Desktop–compatible apps, but be wary of using one from an unfamiliar company. Because you will be letting the app have your Windows password, you should get a Remote Desktop app only from a known, large corporation that you trust.

The Remote Desktop app on iOS and Android devices is similar to the Modern-style Windows app described in this chapter, so you should be able to use it following the instructions provided here.

In the next two sections, we discuss the Modern-style and traditional desktop client programs. The traditional Remote Desktop client has more keyboard, display, sound, and printing options than the Modern version. Try them both and see which you prefer.

When the Remote Desktop app opens, you can do any of the following things:

At the bottom of the app, type in the name of a remote computer, such as the one set up in the first part of this chapter (brian.likes-pie.com). Then click Connect or press Enter to start the connection process. You can also type the name of a computer on your own LAN.

If you want to connect to a computer you’ve used previously and it appears in the list of recent connection icons, just click the icon.

You can right-click a recent connection icon and delete or edit it. The Edit option lets you customize its connection settings or delete a saved credential (password) stored for the connection.

Display the application menu by clicking the hamburger symbol at the upper-left corner of the window’s title bar, and then select Settings to change settings, which we discuss shortly.

Click Access RemoteApp and Desktop Connections to connect to a corporate app server. (Instructions for using this feature would be provided by a network administrator.) Once connected, you can use the Modern-style client as discussed in the rest of this section.

On the Settings panel, under Connection Settings, you can change the following:

Appearance—Determines how visual effects, such as transparency, fade-ins, and so on, are handled. These are impacted by slow network speeds. By default, Windows determines which effects to use and which to suppress to save bandwidth. To force the use of minimal bandwidth, you can turn off all the appearance toggles.

Devices—Lets the remote computer (the one you’re connecting to) use devices on the local computer (the one you’re connecting from). If you enable the printer, for example, remote applications should be able to print on the computer at your current location.

Remote Desktop Gateway—Specifies an Internet-facing computer that serves as a gateway to protected Remote Desktop servers on a corporate network. Information about this would be supplied to you by a network administrator.

Advanced—Controls whether images from the remote session can be stored and displayed on your local computer. Disable Thumbnails and Persistent Caching if you will be viewing sensitive information on the remote computer, such as banking or personal information, that you would not want to be stored as images in temporary files on the computer you’re using locally.

If you are accessing a corporate remote desktop resource, the Manage RemoteApp and Desktops setting menu will let you add, manage, and refresh lists of remote sessions and applications supplied by your workplace.

After you’ve entered a computer name or selected a recent connection, the application connects to the remote computer and prompts you for your username and password.

If the computer is not on a secured network, you will be warned that the computer to which you’re connecting might not be the one you expect. If you trust that the hostname you entered really does lead to the computer you want to use, click Connect Anyway.

After the connection is made, you can use the remote computer as if you were sitting there.

The keyboard and mouse control the remote computer. The Windows Logo keyboard shortcuts, in particular, are sent to the remote computer and act there. Only the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination acts locally; you can type Ctrl+Alt+End to send Ctrl+Alt+Del to the remote computer.

For more useful keyboard shortcuts that you can use while working with the remote computer, see Table 39.2, p. 911.

On the other hand, multitouch gestures act on the local computer. If you have touch only, and no keyboard on your device, you’ll need to use the Remote Desktop app’s app commands to transmit these actions to a remote Windows 10, 8.1, or 8 computer.

To display the app commands, touch the hamburger symbol at the upper-left corner of the Remote Desktop app window and select App Commands, or press Windows Logo+Z. On a touchscreen in Tablet mode, you can also slide your finger down from the top center of the screen. The app commands appear, as shown in Figure 39.3. The icons that appear may change, depending on the version of Windows that you’re controlling. The panels let you control the connection as follows:

The + symbol (at the top of the screen)—Opens an additional connection to another computer. The icons here let you select from a number of concurrent connections to remote computers. Click the icon’s X to close the connection. You will remain signed in on the remote computer if you disconnect this way. We show another way to disconnect shortly.

Home—Returns to the Remote Desktop home screen, which you can use as another way to open an additional connection.

Connection—Displays the condition of the network connection to the remote computer.

Keyboard—Shows the touch keyboard.

Touch Pointer—Turns the touch cursor on or off.

Zoom—Opens the Magnifier tool on the remote computer.

Start—Displays the remote computer’s Start menu or Start screen.

Switch Apps—Lets you select between different running apps on the remote computer.

App Commands—Displays the remote computer’s current app’s command panel; equivalent to Windows Logo+Z or a touch swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Charms—If the remote computer runs Windows 8 or 8.1, displays the Remote Computer’s charms.

When you’re finished working remotely, to disconnect from the remote computer and leave it signed in, running your apps, touch or click the computer name title at the top of the screen, and then close the connection’s icon by clicking its X. (The Power button in the remote computer’s Start menu or Windows 8 or 8.1 Settings charm also disconnects, leaving you signed in.)

To sign out entirely, go to the remote computer’s Start menu or screen and sign out by selecting your name at the top. Select Sign Out. This signs you out and then closes the connection.

When you run the Remote Desktop Client, you’ll see the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box (see Figure 39.4).

Enter the IP address or registered DNS name of the computer you want to use. If you have set up a DDNS hostname, as described in the first part of this chapter, the name might look something like brian.likes-pie.com. If you’re connecting to a computer on your own home or office network, it’s enough just to type its computer name.

At this point, you can select options that control how the remote connection is made, how large a window to use, and so on.

To view the option categories, click the Show Options button. The dialog box expands to show five tabs, as shown in Figure 39.4, which you can select by clicking the tab names across the top. You will rarely need to adjust any of these settings. However, some situations might require you to change settings before making a Remote Desktop connection. Table 39.1 lists these situations.

The Full Screen setting is very useful if you have serious work to do on the remote computer because it gives you the maximum amount of desktop space on which to work. (It also helps because the Windows Logo key will be sent to the remote computer rather than acting on the local computer.) Although the resulting connection will fill your local computer’s screen, you can still switch back and forth between remote and local work, as described in the next section.

When you have made the necessary settings, you might want to save them as the default settings for future connections. To do this, select the General tab and click Save under Connection settings.

Finally, after you have made any necessary option settings, click Connect to begin the connection. Windows prompts you to enter your username and password before it establishes the connection.

The program prompts you to enter a username and password. Type the username and password you use on the remote computer, the one to which you’re connecting. Entering the password is optional and, in most cases, not entering it here is safer. Let the remote system prompt you for your password.

If you want the sign-in name and password to be stored (relatively securely) in the local computer so that future connections can be automatic, enter the password and check Remember My Credentials.

Finally, click OK to begin the connection.

If Network Level Authentication is being used and the connection to the remote computer does not use the IPSec network security protocol, you might get a warning that the remote computer’s identity cannot be validated. (Thus, you could end up giving your password to a counterfeit computer.) In most cases, this is not a problem, so you can click Yes. You also can check Don’t Prompt Me Again for Connections to This Computer, or you can use the Advanced tab in the connection options, as described earlier, to prevent this warning from reoccurring.

The keyboard, mouse, display, and sound (unless you disabled it) should be fully functional. It all works quite well—and it can even be difficult to remember which computer you’re actually using!

If you elected to make the local computer’s disk drives available in the connection options dialog box, the local computer’s drives appear when you open File Explorer on the remote computer. Access to these drives is fairly slow and annoying. Still, you can take advantage of this to copy files between the local and remote computers.

In addition, any printers attached to your local computer will appear as choices if you print from applications on the remote computer, as long as a compatible printer driver is available on the remote computer. Printers might not work if you are connecting from a Mac or a computer that is running an older version of Windows.

Put the remote connection window into Full Screen mode. Then all Windows keys will be sent to the remote computer, except Ctrl+Alt+Del. To send Ctrl+Alt+Del, press Ctrl+Alt+End.

Before you make the connection, view the Local Resources options page and set Apply Windows Key Combinations to On the Remote Computer. (And, as before, this fixes all but Ctrl+Alt+Del.)

Memorize and use the alternative key combinations listed in Table 39.2. These replacement keystrokes don’t work, by the way, if you are using either of the preceding two alternatives.

Table 39.2 shows the alternative keyboard shortcuts that you can use if the window isn’t in Full Screen mode and you haven’t selected to send all Windows key combinations to the remote computer.

When you’ve finished using the remote computer, sign out using the normal means for the remote version of Windows. (For example, for Windows 10 versions, click your name in the upper-left corner of the remote computer’s Start menu, and then select Sign Out.) If you want to leave yourself signed in with applications running, use the remote computer’s normal power or shutdown menu, which will say Disconnect instead. (For Windows 10, click the Power icon in the lower-left part of the remote computer’s Start menu, and then select Disconnect, or just close the Remote Desktop connection window.) You can later reconnect via Remote Desktop or by signing in at the remote computer itself.

I use Remote Desktop to use my work computer from home, and I’ve found that I save a lot of time by never signing out entirely. When I finish at work, I just press Windows Logo+L (“Lock”) to switch out to the Welcome screen. Then I can reconnect from home and pick up where I left off. Likewise, at home, when I’m finished, I simply disconnect, so I never actually sign out.

If you’re using Remote Desktop to use your own computer, this probably won’t matter to you because you’ll probably never see what happens on the other screen. But if you use Remote Desktop to work on someone else’s computer, let that person know what will happen before starting; otherwise, the two of you could get into a tussle, repeatedly kicking the other person off the computer, with neither of you knowing that the other person is there trying to get something done. (I’ve had this happen.)

LogMeIn—For $99 per year for two host computers, you get remote control, file transfer, sound, and printing. Mac and Windows versions are available. A free trial is available. No network setup is necessary. Find information at www.logmein.com. I use this program myself and I really like it. The free iOS and Android client app is called LogMeIn Ignition. It’s superb.

TeamViewer—Available free for personal, noncommercial use, TeamViewer requires no network setup and can even make your LAN available to the remote client computer through a built-in VPN service. Both Windows and Mac clients and hosts are available. Check out www.teamviewer.com.

I’m InTouch—Another no-network-setup remote access product. The remote client is Java based, so you could access your PC from your BlackBerry. There are iOS and Android clients, too. Check out www.01com.com.

BeAnywhere—Another subscription-based remote access product, requiring no network setup. It’s oriented toward organizations that have to provide support for multiple customers. Check it out at www.beanywhere.com.

LapLink Everywhere (formerly Carbon Copy)—Requires no network setup. Clients are available for iOS and PocketPCs as well as PCs. Information can be found at www.laplink.com.

GoToMyPC—A fairly expensive commercial subscription-based product that offers remote access through any web browser. Information can be found at www.gotomypc.com. You can access your computer from Windows, OS X, Android, and iOS.

Radmin—A low-cost remote control program. Information can be found at www.radmin.com. Requires network setup, but there is no annual fee.

VNC—A free, open source program initially developed by AT&T. A big plus for VNC is that both host and client programs are available for virtually every OS. Several VNC versions are available, with TightVNC and RealVNC being the most popular. For information, check out www.tightvnc.com and www.realvnc.com. VNC products require network setup and do not encrypt their data, so they are not safe for connecting directly over the Internet. They are fine to use on a home or business LAN or over a VPN connection.